SOCIAL MIND INSPIRED

Applied Sociology for Social Wellbeing

Understand society to understand yourself.

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Discover your Social Blueprint Profile™ & transform your life.

Your identity and mindset are not just personal.

Disrupt the social and cultural patterns holding you back.

Social Mind Inspired

Resources to cultivate social wellbeing for individuals and coaches. These tools are actionable and address the hidden social forces behind life's common challenges and struggles.

Coaches!

Expand your coaching with applied sociology tools to help your clients interrupt the social conditioning that keeps them stuck. Grow your business with deeper, transformative results that lead to referrals.

It's Not You, It's Society

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In today's world, many people feel disconnected, overwhelmed, and exhausted.

The pressures of keeping up, fitting in, and juggling responsibilities and expectations at work, in relationships, and in daily life leave us stressed out, burned out, and stuck. More often than not, we're socialized and conditioned to believe that our struggles are reflections of personal failures or shortcomings.

The focus of traditional coaching is to empower clients to reframe their limiting beliefs and self-doubts and provide accountability. Often, this individualistic emphasis signals to clients that they're solely responsible for their internal state of mind. This reinforces the cultural message of owning and personalizing difficulties without critically questioning and challenging the push and pull of social forces and systems on our lives.

While these routine coaching approaches help many people, they tend to overlook the societal and cultural factors that shape our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and interactions.

Without social awareness, constraining social forces can block lasting growth and change. When we don't recognize and examine the social context, we continue to personalize setbacks, thinking we are at fault or, worse, internally flawed.

Seeing the Unseen

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Looking at challenges and complexities through a social, cultural, and systematic lens gives individuals, groups, and organizations new ways to understand and respond to what's holding them back.

This sociocultural perspective reveals the hidden social patterns that impact our identities and lived experiences. It includes valuable insights into social dynamics and patterns that go beyond surface-level perceptions.

Shift Your Perspective

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What if you could better understand the social systems and cultural norms that hinder goals and aspirations?

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What if you could confidently identify and challenge the invisible social and cultural forces undermining social wellbeing?

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What new possibilities might emerge if you began critically questioning social conditioning?

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What might shift for you and the people you support if you stopped internalizing the social pressures you never chose?

Social Mind Inspired tools and resources are grounded in applied sociology, expanding and complementing existing coaching methodologies for a more holistic approach to personal and professional development.

Your First Step.
Discover your Social Blueprint Profile™ and get your free, in-depth assessment report.

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Hi There and Welcome

On a mission to infuse applied sociology to personal and professional development.

Hello, I'm Romana Pires, Sociology Professor & Practitioner 🤍

Male stick figure pointing to: Mindset. It's an inside and social job.

I'm so glad you found your way here.

You're invited to stretch your mind, question the familiar, and reimagine possibilities and new opportunities for your personal and professional growth.

I'm fascinated by societal and social dynamics and the cultural patterns that influence every aspect of our lives, some of which are easy to see, while many are not.

If you're feeling stuck by life's pressures and inner struggles, chances are society shapes your experiences more than you might realize.

When self-doubt keeps you stuck and judgments or unfair expectations make you feel small and hold you back, you're not alone. Societal systems, historical narratives, and cultural values and norms impact everything from confidence to career success and affect us all.

My work helps people who feel weighed down see the connections between their struggles and larger social patterns so that they can stop internalizing blame and shame.

By critically reflecting on society and the social environments in which we live, we gain the ability to challenge their grip and power over us. Insight is the lightbulb moment.

Once we see the conditioned patterns for what they are, we gain a renewed sense of agency and freedom.

I'm excited to share applied sociology with you and support your social wellbeing!

Cheers to an abundance of future lightbulb moments! 💡

Perspective, Presence, & Potential

Social Mind Inspired Infographic of The Three Pillars of Social Wellbeing

Shared Insights

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In a hypercomplex and diverse society, people constantly navigate shifting identities, cultural diversity, social disorganization, and fragmented social structures. Coaching can help individuals situate themselves within societal contexts rather than viewing their challenges in isolation (Stelter, 2009).

Cultural perspectives shape leadership and workplace dynamics, often unconsciously. Coaches who develop cultural competence can navigate diversity and support clients more effectively, including an understanding of gender, race, ethnicity, patriarchy, and language underlying social interactions (Stout-Roston, 2017).

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Coaching has largely been developed within an individualistic self-improvement framework, often detached from social structures shaping human experience. This approach risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than challenging them. Coaching for social change offers a critical alternative by recognizing the interplay between individual development and social transformation, helping individuals examine oppressive narratives, resist internalized beliefs, and engage with the social, political, and economic landscapes that shape their lives (Shoukry, 2016).

Sociotherapy is based on sociological insights into human experience, recognizing that individual suffering is shaped by social structures, institutions, and histories. While psychotherapy has long been dominated by individualistic perspectives, sociotherapy highlights the interdependence of social and psychological factors (Cavanagh, 2021). This view suggests that coaches also take a similar approach with their clients that acknowledges the social environments and collective traumas that impact them.

Disruptive and Dramatic Social Change (DSC) refers to the rapid, large-scale changes caused by political upheavals, economic shifts, technological advances, climate crises, and social movements. These forces reshape identities, careers, and wellbeing, often leaving people struggling to adapt. Yet, most coaching models fail to account for how external social forces shape personal challenges. There is a need for a coaching paradigm that integrates psychosocial awareness, helping clients navigate not just their internal struggles but the larger shifts affecting their lives. Without this understanding, coaches risk reinforcing outdated approaches that ignore the realities of today's changing world (Stănciulescu, 2024).

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Sociological intervention helps individuals and groups redefine how they interpret their challenges by considering social structures, social interactions, and cultural influences. Unlike conventional approaches that focus on personal adjustment, sociology empowers clients to critically engage with their social environments rather than simply adapting to them. By shifting perspectives, sociology-based interventions offer a deeper, more systemic approach to personal and professional growth (Straus, 1984).

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The following summaries, selected from peer-reviewed journals, highlight views that emphasize the need to integrate societal and social contexts into personal and professional development spaces, including coaching and therapy.

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Are you focused on personal or high-performance goals?

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Do you long to create lasting change in your community in a way that feels fulfilling and aligned with your values?

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Are you a coach looking to maximize your coaching potential and impact?

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Explore the materials found under the Free Resources tab.

Imagine Possibilities

Take a Closer Look

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Applied sociology insights don't just change what you know; they change how you feel, see and move through the world.

Shift From*

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The Power of the Social Lens*

It's not just me.
My experiences finally make sense.
Why wasn't I taught this before?
So much of what I believed isn't the full picture.
I've internalized unfair expectations all my life.
I can navigate challenges differently now.
I understand where others are coming from.
I want to use this knowledge to help others.
I don't have to follow a script that I didn't write.
Applied sociology opens your eyes.
Everything is shaped by society's systems.
This is larger than I thought.
We're even more interconnected than I realized.

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Emergent Growth

Agency
Attunement
Belonging
Calm
Clarity
Confidence
Connection
Compassion
Empowerment
Fulfillment
Flourishing
Grounded Presence
Inspired Action
Loosening Attachments
Possibilities
Purpose
Realignment
Relationship Harmony
Resilience
Self-Care
Self-Trust
Validation
Values Alignment
Work-Life Integration
And more...

Social Constraints

Collective & Communal Pain
Difficult Life Transitions
Discrimination & Marginalization
Fear of Success or Failure
Grief, Loss, & New Beginnings
Intergenerational Burdens
Invisible Labor Expectations
Isolation, Loneliness, & Disconnection
Life Purpose, Indecision, & Floundering
Organizational Challenges
Overwhelm & Task Paralysis
People-Pleasing
Perfectionism
Polycrisis Fears
Procrastination
Relationship Challenges
Role Overload & Depletion
Self-Blame
Self-Doubt
Self-Judgement
Shame
Social Comparison
Work-Pressures
Worries & Stress
And more...

*The above are not medical claims or therapeutic promises. The topics, tools, resources, and insights offered intend to support awareness, reflection, and personal or professional development utilizing the sociological perspective, mindfulness-based practices, and critical inquiry. Information and services do not diagnose, treat, or cure any mental health or physical conditions.

*The above are general compilations reflective of sociological insights. They are not direct individual quotes or testimonials.

Shift To*

Invitation to Learn More

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Are you ready to explore applied sociology in your life?

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Are you curious about how these insights can help you?

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Access materials found under the Free Resources tab.

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Complete the Social Blueprint Profile™ assessment.